The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth

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Summary: The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth
Review: I originally read this book as a library book in it's first edition. It was one of the seminal influences in my discovering France and discovering my own love of cooking and fine food. Over the years I acquired several other books by Roy Andries De Groot and he never failed to inspire me. This one is absolutely a classic for any one who loves food and travel.

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Summary: Grande Chartreuse
Review: I was given this book as a gift...then had to yank it away from the giver! It brought back memories. Growing up, my best friend from the fifth grade through college was the daughter of a French war bride. Although her father worked for Ford Motor Company, like many of the father's in my suburban neighborhood, their family was different. One of the strangest differences was the way my friend's mother treated stomach upsets. In our family, like most of the families in the area, we would be given a glass of Vernor's Ginger Ale. My friend's mother administered small glasses of Chartreuse. After Elizabeth David and Colette conspired to infuse a love of all things French in my character, I began to collect books about France, hence the gift. How wonderful to read this cookbook from a wonderful auberge in the neighborhood of the grand old monastery of Chartreuse. I have never had the liquer -- although I have looked at the bottles in stores -- but I have tried the recipes and reveled in the stories of this wonderful old inn.

Rating:
Summary: Grande Chartreuse
Review: I was given this book as a gift...then had to yank it away from the giver! It brought back memories. Growing up, my best friend from the fifth grade through college was the daughter of a French war bride. Although her father worked for Ford Motor Company, like many of the father's in my suburban neighborhood, their family was different. One of the strangest differences was the way my friend's mother treated stomach upsets. In our family, like most of the families in the area, we would be given a glass of Vernor's Ginger Ale. My friend's mother administered small glasses of Chartreuse. After Elizabeth David and Colette conspired to infuse a love of all things French in my character, I began to collect books about France, hence the gift. How wonderful to read this cookbook from a wonderful auberge in the neighborhood of the grand old monastery of Chartreuse. I have never had the liquer -- although I have looked at the bottles in stores -- but I have tried the recipes and reveled in the stories of this wonderful old inn.

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Summary: Non pareil
Review: If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to that Auberge! (if only it were still there) The way he describes his first steps into the hidden valley, sound like the opening to The Sound of Music ... I read this book with growing love and fascination. It inspired me to study cooking at the French Culinary Institute. I haven't tried these specific recipes yet, though they sound like French classics. Thank you, thank you, for telling this story.

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Summary: Beautiful!
Review: If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to that Auberge! The way he describes his first steps into the hidden valley, sound like the opening to The Sound of Music ... I read this book with growing love and fascination, then went to study cooking at the French Culinary Institute and discovered that he is right about the food, the history. I haven't tried these specific recipes yet, though they sound like French classics. Thank you, thank you, for telling this story.

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Summary: Non pareil
Review: One of the other reviewers noted DeGroot's gift for description, and was amazed when he learned that deGroot was blind. I, who knew he was blind before I read the book, was also amazed and continue to be -- though there are telltale clues throughout, as, for example, when he describes eau de vie de prune as deep purple in color. Not in his lifetime or mine: it is clear as water...it simply tastes dark purple. But no matter about DeGroot's blindness or occasional factual slips; this is one of the greatest (and oddest) cookbooks in English, one of the very few to sit comfortably on a shelf with the works of Madelaine Kamman, Elizabeth David, Richard Olney, and MFK Fisher. Like the best works of those other authors, this is fundamentally a book about life-well-lived, not merely about cooking, eating and drinking. Nonetheless, the recipes work well and the stories behind them provide more than enough context and inspiration to pursuade you to try them. The oddness comes from the fairy-tale atmosphere DeGroot creates and maintains throughout. The mysterious old inn (no longer extant, of course) in the village at the top of the alpine valley could almost have come from the Brothers Grimm -- except there are no evil witches, just two kindly and aging lesbians, and the cauldron in the kitchen is not bubbling over with unspeakables. I have been cooking seriously for thirty years, have taught cooking in Parisand other places, and have been the executive chef of a Michelin rated restaurant in London (I'm now a lawyer and business consultant in California). In my restaurant in London (6 Clarendon Road, W11, now run by my friend and grand gourmand, Paul Fisher) I gave a copy to all the senior cooks, and insisted that they read it -- not for the recipes specifically, but for the wonderment, dedication and attention to detail I felt sure it would inspire. It did. Truly, a not-to-missed book.

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Summary: Lose yourself in the French countryside.
Review: This is a book I turn to again and again, a book to savor by the fireplace on a cold night, while sipping a glass of wine, a book that transports me to a place and time where the enjoyment of food and drink are paramount, and nothing else really matters much.

The descriptions of the meals are wonderfully delectable. The author had such a keen eye for observation and such a facility for description that it came as quite a shock to me to learn, long after reading the book, that he was blind.

I have never dined this way--these glorious, elegant, leisurely meals must have lasted for hours--but what fun to read about them! You will never look at that dusty bottle of Chartreuse in the back of your liquor cabinet the same way again.

This book is essential reading for foodies, and a pleasure for anyone who enjoys food or travel writing. Buy this book; you won't regret it!

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Summary: A great read about regional food
Review: This is not a "cookbook". It is a wonderfully descriptive book about the cooking in the mountainous region from which Chartreuse originates. There are recipes, but one reads this book for pleasure rather than details

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: This is, without a doubt, the most extraordinary book on food and gastronomy ever. Brilliantly written, a true snapshot in time.